Entries in the 'Dissemination' Category

The Meteor Is Already Close

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the upper force is good, why is it revealed in an unpleasant way, pressuring us?

Answer: The higher power pressures us from above in that it aspires to be discovered. Whereas, we are found below as separated, crushed, rejecting and hating each other. The pressure of the upper force from above increases our problems, because He wants to be discovered, but is not.

All of the problems pop up because of the approach of the Creator to us. If you are not adapted to Him, then His approach awakens negative reactions in you.

Question: I don’t understand how the approach of the Creator could be perceived as negative. It would seem that this would be the opposite; wouldn’t it be necessary to awaken some kind of positive results?

Answer: Imagine that you are a child. Your mother comes to you and asks: “Have you completed your homework?” And you haven’t prepared your lessons. So your mother threatens: “Watch out, I will come back in another hour to check if you have finished your homework!” As the hour passes you begin to be afraid of when she will come back because you still haven’t done anything.

How will her approach be felt in this case: good or bad? If you don’t comply with her demand, you feel her approach as unpleasant, you don’t want her to come to check you. Isn’t this so?

And now the same thing is happening with us. We are not carrying out those actions that we must carry out. We don’t want to become like one person with one heart, where all of Israel are friends, connected with mutual guarantee (Arvut). We are not becoming like those that we must be, and so the approach of the Creator awakens troubles, disasters, and wars within us and around us.

All of these are the result of the nearing of the Creator. The Holocaust was a result of His approach. That is how the approach of the upper force is revealed if we don’t adapt to it.

So we must prevent the blow through a remedy: Begin getting closer to each other, connect so that we approximate ourselves to the approach of the Creator. Then we will accept this approach as better and better, to the state in which the upper force will be completely clothed in us. There is no better state than this!

Question: Is the upper force like a meteor that is approaching our Earth?

Answer: The higher power is not approaching us with the speed of a meteor, which is 30 kilometers per second. This is a gradual process that began a long time ago. But essentially this “meteor” is already close, and its speed is increasing all the time. The inner and outer tension has grown.

After that a period of calm could come. But even if it comes, it will be for a very brief time. Periods of calm will become more and more compressed, whereas the tension will grow exponentially. This is because we are on the threshold of the general correction and the Creator is obliging us to carry out the correction, meaning to connect among us.

We must come to a state of “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” no matter how unrealistic this may seem to us. The higher power is prepared to force us into this through its pressure. But it is desirable to begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah because from it, we discover how to attain this in ourselves before we are pressured from above with full force. We can reach this connection ourselves in a good way, without coercion.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: Preparing the People of Israel for Light” 8/20/14

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The Good Example That The World Is Waiting For

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During the war, unity, solidarity and a common fate were felt among the people of Israel. But what were we missing in order to truly unite the people; many people didn’t feel themselves as part of the general whole?

Answer: The Jewish people were assembled around Abraham our father, who called for love and connection from representatives of all the nations of the world. At that time, when we succeeded in connecting, uniting, and living according to the law of love, we began to be called the “people of Israel.”

But we then fell from this state and distanced ourselves from the principle of connection as one person with one heart. From the height of love, we fell into hatred. With this, we awakened hatred from the whole world towards us. And the sources of all the nations of the world, from which we emerged, were awakened in us when we came into the group of Abraham.

So it is not surprising that today we don’t want to be the people of Israel in the land of Israel, meaning connected according to the law of love. We hate ourselves, we don’t love our people, our nationality, our belonging to Judaism, and we want to be freed from it. This desire is present in everyone, openly or secretly.

In every Jew there are physical sources from the seventy nations of the world and there is also a spiritual source. Now we must awaken this spiritual source. It is possible to do this only through the wisdom of Kabbalah, which explains to us the entire system: from where we came, why we exist, how we must connect with each other, and how we receive that higher power which is one and will therefore make a single system from us.

We must provide an example to the world of how it is possible to live together with a collective love. The world expects this and is ready to learn from us. See how everyone feels that they depend upon us by blaming us for all the problems and troubles? So come, let’s present a good example to the world so that with it they will create peace and tranquility.

There is no preference for the people of Israel over the rest of the people. On the contrary, we must become the teachers and the Light to all the rest of the nations. And so everyone agrees with our enemies who are bombarding us with missiles. These are like the plagues in Egypt that are awakening us to depart from this state of exile.
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From the program “A New Life” 8/14/14

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From Instinctive Solidarity To Genuine Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do we need to do in order to become a true nation of Israel? It seemed to me that I was seeing examples of mutual support and solidarity all around.

Answer: This is a solidarity that arises intuitively during a common danger, but it is not called mutual guarantee. In difficult times, we all are willing to help each other, flocking together instinctively.

This happens in any society, in any group, and even among animals because it provides psychological support, elevates the spirit, and gives a feeling of greater confidence and connection. However, it has nothing to do with “Love thy neighbor.”

Love for one’s neighbor is such a deep inner bond that it only can be achieved through a special connection between us, attainable through the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We receive an example of such feelings during special discussions in a circle, and in workshops, but this is not enough. We need to pass the basis of this method to everyone so that each person will understand where this feeling comes from, why it arises, and how to implement it.

Each of us must become a carrier of this method, because in it, lies one’s life and one’s soul. With it, one builds their eternal existence, their independence. This is why it is not enough simply to hear about it for a few minutes. Rather, one must understand what world we are living in and what system operates us. Through this, we can understand the forces of nature, change them, and use them for our own good.

Then, we can show an example to the entire world and call upon it to unite, “Look at the world that is opening before us! We can ascend to an eternal and absolute degree, instead of existing for a few decades on this earth and ending it at that. The gates to a new world are being flung open before us.”

This is what each of us subconsciously is awaiting and what the nations of the world want. However, the Jewish people hold the key, and we are obliged to open it up. It is ready for our use!

I very much hope that the pressure that we are feeling today, from the internal anti-Semitism that exists within us and the external pressure, would be enough to turn the attention of the entire nation to the inner teaching, in other words, to the wisdom of Kabbalah.

There are people with a book of instructions by which this nation must live. Without them, we are attempting to imitate the nations of the world, but it does not work. We need to structure ourselves in accordance with these instructions.

I hope that the suffering we are enduring today will be enough to draw our attention to this topic, because otherwise, problems will increase and continue to grow until they oblige us to become a true nation of Israel and a light for other nations in order to lead the entire world to correction, to the good connection.

Comment: We join you in your good hopes!
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From the program “A New Life” #426 8/14/14

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The Way To Adhesion With The Creator

Dr. Michael Laitman Shamati 1, “There is None Else Besides Him”: A man must always try and cleave to the Creator. Adhesion with the Creator is an indication that everything that happens is coming only from Him, and that He acts and influences me only with the help of the Light; “there is none else beside Him” and He is the “good and beneficent.” I try to discover these two facts and keep adhering to them. I try with all my might and I make sure not to leave either of them.

In everything that happens, I first look inside my mind and see that this comes as an influence on me from the good and benevolent and that “there is none else besides Him.”

In the representation that develops within me of this whole world and of what is within me, this entire system directs me towards that source that presents this representation of our world, this life, and me. It is here He wants me to discover only Him through all this theater, until the theater disappears and only He and I remain in adhesion.

So, we have no other work except to orient ourselves like this at every moment of our lives. And everything else is designed to help in this: studying the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to attract the Light that Reforms and awaken it further so that it will illuminate more strongly. I must be in a group with the friends so that they will frequently remind me about this.

I must be involved with dissemination to show how this one force acts in the world, because I go out to the world, wanting to lead it towards an arrangement where it will be connected into a single whole that is integrally linked with “there is none else beside Him.” All of these activities are designed only so that behind this whole world, behind the friends, behind the study, I will discover the Creator with whom I am in adhesion.

And that is how it always has been. Even now, we are in this state, only it is hidden. This brings me much confusion. This concealment is called Olam (world), from the word, “Olama” (concealment).

We must remove this world, remove this concealment, and then everything that we are feeling now with our senses will disappear, the entire still, vegetative, and animate nature. Everything will become connection between us, between our connected desires. To that degree, we discover the one power, the good and benevolent. Everything ends in a state of “one receives one,” one creature is filled by one Creator. This is the completion of correction.
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From the Convention In New Jersey “Day Two” 08/09/14, lesson 4

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The Round Method

From the brochure “The Only Way Out”:

One of the most effective and affordable means of the technique is the “roundtable.” A roundtable is a mechanism for decision-making on matters affecting the interests of all social groups of society, as well as a meeting place for these social groups.

Roundtables have been known for a long time. According to the legend, King Arthur, the fabled leader of the Britons in the 5th and 6th centuries, introduced the roundtable so that his sovereigns and participants at his feasts would not argue with each other about the best place and, therefore, felt equal.

A normal,well-known roundtable has existed for about 1,500 years. The Kabbalistic roundtable has its roots in antiquity. It was one of the most important legislative and educational tools of the Jews at the dawn of civilization. It was used to rule the country and raise the younger generation:

“We sat in a semicircle, in love and friendship, as one whole, like the Sanhedrin, having no doubts in each other. Thus we saw and heard each other and debated with each other until the decision came out properly.

If we had set in a row, and not in a circle, the first ones would not have seen the last ones. But we did not sit in a full circle, so that everyone could exit and enter.”—Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Ben Yitzhak (1040–1105),  commentator on the Bible and Talmud and community leader in northern France.

The proverbial roundtable proved itself to be an effective tool for solving various problems. At the same time, the effectiveness of the roundtable, based on the method of Kabbalah, is simply amazing. Complete strangers experience such relationships that exist only between the closest people.

With this tool, you can improve relationships in the family, settle conflicts at work, and resolve the problems at the national level. It is no secret that the root of all problems, from traffic jams to armed clashes, is ultimately in the relationship between people.

It is important to note that the roundtable is held according to certain principles. Its participants should make an effort to add their own individuality and originality to the common pool. Efforts should be directed to minimize disturbances and friction on the one hand, and to enhance each other’s contribution.

The technique allows overcoming any barriers that hinder our understanding: mentality, origin, age, political views, etc.

At the same time, a specific solution to a specific problem is not the goal. This is a natural consequence of the unity achieved in the circle.

Reaching a new level of harmonious, integral relationships, similar to the perfection of nature itself is our goal.

The integral method does not begin and end with roundtables. The roundtable is just one of the many tools of integral education.
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What Is Happening To Us?

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday, people need to know what is happening to them, for whatever reason it happens, and how they can change the situation.

We see from day to day the hastening of the events that bring us closer to new states more quickly. We can only detect this sequence in which a punishing imperative is seemingly inherent.

Throughout the world, we are witnessing growing anti-Semitism, outbreaks of hatred towards Jews, antagonism against the State of Israel, and all kinds of demonstrations. Various media are trying to distort the facts, creating news and daily analysis in an anti-Israel light.

We see that the whole world as if discovers in this a common force, one spirit that permeates the atmosphere with hatred towards the Jews and Israel.

When the human being recognizes this general trend that is sweeping the world in a manner of weeks, one naturally asks oneself: How is this possible that there is such a powerful reaction to this small war, in comparison with the hundreds of thousands who are being killed in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Africa, Afghanistan, etc.?

Here indeed lies the ultimate destiny, and only the secret wisdom, the science of Kabbalah is able to explain what is happening to us and how to act correctly in this situation.
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On The Threshold Of A Grand Event

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do we do when the feeling of unity begins to subside?

Answer: I advise everyone to seriously engage in even greater unity. Moreover, it should be distinctly aimed at creating one single desire directed at connection where the Creator will appear.

You must develop this thought in you, seek it constantly, analyze, collect, process, and refine it. It should constantly churn inside of you and you need to “suck” it like hard candy.

Strive to support each other and treat each other with great sensitivity. Do not distract one another from thinking about spirituality. Reread what Kabbalists write about the conditions of uniting at Mount Sinai in order to “be as one man with one heart.” These are the conditions for revelation of the Creator.

The entire world group stands at the threshold of this event. What is required in order to come to it? Find materials about standing at Mount Sinai and read them, trying not to perceive the language of the sources as religious.

Constantly remain in an increasingly more precise, pointed, common, mutual, and intertwining intention so that all your intentions will connect between you and create one single whole through which the Creator will be revealed. You can achieve this.

Do not confuse this most important goal with going out to the broad public. Going out among the people is meant only to “tighten” you a little more, to give you additional spiritual needs.
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From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 6

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A War Between Good And Evil

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Do you feel that the warm unity that is being revealed in the people of Israel in the latest war is only a small taste of that complete connection that must exist between all people?

Answer: Very much so. A connection like this must exist between all people in the world, without exception. Everyone must feel that others are like his blood brothers. And the people of Israel must show an example of this: giving power and energy to this, helping others to organize.

This is specifically what the anti-Semites say, except differently; for after all, they still have not received any help in this from the people of Israel. And so they are asking for something good from us, but they blame us for being the source of all suffering.

Question: How does the connection of the people of Israel that is created in a time of war influence the world?

Answer: It has not yet influenced the world because we have not attained true unity. In the meantime, we are far from the state of being like one person with one heart. We must organize according to those processes that bring the people to general unity. And likewise, it is necessary to explain to the whole world that we are building an example for everyone.

The process that Israel must go through to unite as one nation is intended for other nations. And this symbolizes being “a light to the nations,” “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Without the inclusion of all peoples in this process, creation will not become a single integral system.

The people of Israel were already in a state like this. Now it is charged with an additional task: not just to connect between us as we once were, but specifically to bring the entire world to connection. So this is called the “complete redemption,” “the last generation.”

All of humanity must attain the same connection that once existed among the people of Israel. We are not just returning to that state. We are not connecting just to be united between us but in order to connect others. This is another task from the start, a new level, a new direction, and a new goal.

So we must disseminate this knowledge to all of the people of Israel, and to the whole world as well. This is specifically what we intend to do: to unite in order to unite the people of Israel and the whole world after it. We need to remember this goal from the outset, as it is said, “the final act is in the initial thought.”

So we must disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah and all that it says about the correction of the world and the mission of the people of Israel. And we will see how much this will be accepted in the world.

But if we don’t do this, then the whole world will join to support Gaza. Imagine the whole world siding with Gaza, connecting to it with all their heart and soul, and sending battleships, weapons, missiles, and aid there. What would we do then?

And this is what will happen if we don’t translate this war between good and evil inward, by directing against our evil, against the opposition to connection. This war of Gog and Magog was described clearly by the prophets. It was said that the whole world will join our enemy, and for example, the enemy that we see at the moment is Hamas.

Yet in fact no enemy exists, we materialize it through our separation. If we want Hamas to disappear, we only need to unite. Hamas has no other role besides the unification of the people of Israel.

All wars and suffering are directed only towards one goal, to obligate us to feel the power of unity and to rise to the level of a single consciousness. But we see that the moment that the war ends, the situation calms at least a little, and it becomes a bit quieter, we immediately fall from the level of unity.

And who has the responsibility for the people of Israel not descending from this state of unity? Those with have the method of Kabbalah, of unity. This means people who are studying the wisdom of Kabbalah and understand the whole program, the process, the powers of correction; they are the ones who are responsible for everything that is happening and must bring the method of unification to all of the people.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/12/14

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Chance To Help Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When I deal with the general public, it’s quite hard for me to feel them. Even though our knowledge about these issues is vast, maybe there is a shorter and more sensory, psychological way to approach them? My inability to find connection with these people hurts me a lot.

Answer: I understand that you cannot descend to the street level. It is very difficult. Often, it is much easier to ascend than to descend. However, this stage has to be covered.

For example, Baal HaSulam ascended on his own, but in order to write The Study of the Ten Sefirot, he asked the Creator to lower him. In his article “The Prophecy,” Baal HaSulam wrote: “…even if I descend from my sublime degree, I must make a heartfelt plea to the Creator, to grant me attainment and knowledge of the prophecy and wisdom, and the words by which to help the forlorn people of the world, to raise them to the same degree of wisdom and pleasantness as mine.”

Lowering to these people is very difficult! It’s anti-spiritual! It’s against the entire creation; it’s hard even in this realm! A real teacher who can lower to the level of a child and talk with him as an equal is a rare and wonderful professional. Usually, it is done mechanically.

In the workshops, you should practice to think as common people do, sense them and talk with them at their level. At the same time, it is quite dangerous. Try doing it very accurately and measure your ability to play as if you are one of them.

You have to learn how to transition between our level and lower degrees. You should dynamically switch between various levels and be in different states: become as a man, a woman, a child, a more or less educated person, or an ignorant one. You should play these roles very seriously and feel their reaction, needs, demands, and opinions.

At the same time, you have to remain at your own level and still be “dressed” in their image. This is called “Levush” (clothing). Only then you’ll establish a good contact with them.

Let’s say, your level allows you to define the other people’s degrees. How can you descend from your level and make contact with them? This process is called a “descent,” “clothing,” it is a pedagogically spiritual maneuver. Teachers use this method subconsciously. In our system, it should be accurately measured.

You must make a special Zivug de Aka’a (cohesion with the Light); i.e., you should transform yourself into a lower state and make contact with ordinary people in a way that both of your states merge. It is a very interesting job that we will have to learn to do. That’s why we are called “the teachers of humanity.”

It is very good that we already have a demand for this kind of work. Try talking about these issues with each other. This is actually all that the The Study of the Ten Sefirot is about. All our work is about it too. Then, through working on these states among you, you’ll start feeling them internally.

Also, it’s interesting because when one goes through these states, when one dresses in numerous new Partzufim, one becomes “round” and equal to the world of Infinity. This is the type of connection among people through which unity, love, and complete merging occurs.
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From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 4

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The Time Of The Babylonian Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How should we relate to our current state?

Answer: Today, having “departed” from Babylon 3,500 years ago, we again feel that we are back in the same place, in ancient Babylon. That’s why our time is the time of the Babylonian correction; we tried to escape from Babylon, but did not succeed because Babylon (i.e., our egoistic society) has to be corrected!

So, we must look at history as a whole, and it is irrelevant that it has been 3,500 years since Abraham attempted to create a unified society. These events reflect on the destiny of humanity. These events are being transformed, conveyed, and concentrated in one aspiration: attaining unity. So far, we continue revealing our oppositeness to it.

We have to be connected with the Creator in our studies and activities. The Creator, the force of the Light, the property of bestowal, that corrects us and without whom we are unable to cope with the task, has to be implied in everything we do.
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